Top 100 Content Marketing Posts of 2014

The end of the year is approaching, and before we all start focusing in on our 2015 goals, I think it’s important to reflect back on how far content marketing has come this year.

If you think that all content marketing involves is putting up a few blog posts and hoping your fans will share them, you’ve got to get with the times!  Content marketing isn’t some passing fad, and it’s much more than simply creating content for the purposes of driving traffic.  As SEO and other traditional digital marketing techniques change and evolve, content marketing will continue to play a bigger and bigger role in successful online marketing campaigns.

For many of today’s businesses, content marketing is as much about generating leads and revenue as it is about building traffic.  It also has all of the following advantages to offer companies that take this technique seriously:

• Content marketing builds trust with consumers – Research conducted by Forrester suggests that only 10% of consumers trust internet banner ads.  As a result, you’ve got to find new ways to get your message out in a way that doesn’t alienate consumers or come across as too self-promotional.  Content marketing can help you fill this gap.
• Content marketing is more affordable than traditional media buys – According to Hubspot, inbound leads (like the kind generated by content marketing) are 61% less expensive than those acquired through outbound marketing.  When it comes down to it, you can’t afford to ignore the power of content marketing!
• Content marketing is great for building brands – Whether you’re a B2B provider or a B2C retailer, content marketing can help get you noticed.  For instance, take a look at Wistia’s Learning Library.  Through the creation and deployment of high-value, branded content, the company was able to make a name for itself as one of the web’s top video hosting services.

Content marketing is here to stay, so if you’ve spent 2014 pushing this powerhouse promotional technique down your to-do list, it’s time to get started.  Below, I’ve compiled 100 of my favorite content marketing blog posts of 2014 (so far).  They’re broken out by category, so find the section that’s most relevant to your current needs and get reading!

Content Marketing Strategy

According to some estimates, 91% of B2B marketers and 86% of B2C marketers use content marketing.  So it’s no surprise that plenty has been written this year about the best content strategies for businesses and consumers alike.

Whether you’re starting a new campaigns from scratch or looking to refine your current efforts, give the articles below a try:

• Top Rank Blog – “Content Marketing Strategy Infographic – 12 Tips from SAP, Boeing, CAT, Progressive, John Deere, charity: water”
• Mashable – “7 Tips for Starting a Content Marketing Strategy”
• Forbes – “5 Steps to Boost Conversion Rates Through Your Content Marketing Strategy”
• eConsultancy – “Introducing the Periodic Table of Content Marketing”
• Onboardly – “Content Marketing is a Long-Term Strategy”
• Moz – “A Content Strategy Template You Can Build On”
• Forbes – “50 Content Marketing Ideas for Your Website or Blog”
• KISSMetrics – “7 Content Marketing Lessons Learned from 225,418 Visitors a Month”
• Jeff Bullas – “5 Steps to a Damn Good Content Marketing Strategy”
• Mention – “A Field Guide to Content Marketing: Finding Your Groove”
• Moz – “The Greatest Misconception in Content Marketing [Whiteboard Friday]”
• Jeff Bullas – “The One Big Thing Some of the Best Content Marketers Forget”
• Moz – “Case Study: 5 Steps to Create a Killer Content Marketing Strategy”
• Content Marketing Institute – “4 Content Marketing Initiatives You Need in 2015”
• Onboardly – “Build Your Content Marketing Strategy Like the Ark, Not the Titanic”
• Quicksprout – “10 Ways to Improve Your Content Marketing”
• Orbit Media Studios – “Content Strategy Explained in 180 Seconds”
• Hubspot – “The Essential Guide to Creating a Content Marketing Strategy”
• Spokal – “4 Things You Didn’t (But Should) Know about Content Marketing”

Content Planning

Knowing that content marketing is important is one thing – putting it into practice is another thing altogether!  Check out the following resources if your editorial calendar could use a little attention:

• ClickZ – “Social Media Content Marketing: Trash the Content Calendar and Post Really Great Stuff”
• Hubspot – “How to Make Your Content Plan So Good It’s Scary”
• Hubspot – “Content Mapping 101: The Template You Need to Personalize Your Marketing”
• Paper.li – “10 Tried-and-True Tips for Better Content Marketing”
• Social Media Examiner – “How to Create Written Content that Generates Leads”
• Caleb Storkey – “The 10 Best Types of Content for Marketing”
• Moz – “Screen Size Matters: Adapting Content Strategy for Multiple Devices”
• Contently – “The Best Branded Content of 2014, So Far”
• Forbes – “Tips for Building a Strong Content Marketing Plan for 2014”
• Quicksprout – “My Failed Attempt at Content Marketing and What I Learned”
• Wordstream – “3 Content Marketing ‘Best Practices’ That Small Businesses Should Ignore”

Content Creation

The cornerstone of any good content marketing campaign is, unsurprisingly, the content underpinning it.  However, creating good content is as much a science as it is an art.  The following articles will help you strike this balance and generate content that helps get your business noticed.

• Hubspot – “16 Free Tools that Make Content Creation Way Easier”
• Entrepreneur – “101 Different Types of Web Content for Building Your Site”
• David Meerman Scott – “Great Content Ideas Come from Seeing Patterns”
• Hubspot – “7 Quick Ways to Curate Industry Content for Your Blog”
• Quicksprout – “How to Create Content that Drives Lots of Organic Traffic”
• Top Rank Blog – “11 Blog & Social Content Marketing Tools I Use (Almost) Every Day”
• Do SEO Yourself – “28 Expert Bloggers Reveal Their #1 Content Marketing Technique”
• Wistia – “Marketing to a Mission: Create Better Content with Mission-Based Marketing”
• Marketo – “6 Ways to Create Rocket-Fuel Content for Marketing Automation”
• Moz – “Scaling Quality Content”

Business Blogging

For many businesses, blogging is the first foray into the world of content marketing.  Business blogging can be a powerful strategy for attracting followers and converting customers, but be cautious.  Understanding how to produce measurable value through your business blog – rather than just blogging for the sake of blogging – will help prevent you from wasting time and money on poorly-performing content.

• Jeff Bullas – “How to Use a Blog as the Cornerstone of Your Content Marketing”
• Moz – “When is a Blog the Right Form of Content Marketing?”
• Sales for Life – “Go Social: Set up Your Own Blog”
• Hubspot – “Why Business Blogging Works”
• Quicksprout – “The 6 Elements of a Powerful Blog Post”
• Onboardly – “Content Upcycling: How One Blog Post Can Last You Months”
• Marketo – “The 3-Step Guide to Better Blogging”
• Jeff Bullas – “How to Start a Blog: Step-by-Step Instructions”
• Hubspot – “The Anatomy of a Corporate Content Team: 5 Models Your Brand Can Follow”
• SEMRush – “How to Find a Host Blog”
• Hubspot – “8 Data-Driven Tips for Using Images in Blog Posts”

Content Marketing and SEO

Plenty of people are saying that SEO is dead, but this couldn’t be further from the truth!  SEO is still around, but the advent of content marketing has changed the way SEO campaigns should be designed and executed.  Here are a few great articles that explore this intersection:

• Coschedule – “An SEO Driven Approach to Content Marketing”
• Hubspot – “Where Keywords Fit in the Future of SEO”
• Quicksprout – “What SEO Used to Be Versus What SEO is Now”
• Positionly – “SEO and Content Marketing: How to Find the Perfect Balance Between Both”
• Top Rank Blog – “The Truth About  Content Marketing and SEO”
• eConsultancy – “SEO for Content Marketing: Seven Success Factors”
• KISSMetrics – “What Should I Spend More Time On – Technical SEO or Content Marketing?”
• Search Engine Journal – “How to Combine Your SEO and Content Marketing for Explosive Results”
• Search Engine Watch – “How to Create a Content Marketing Strategy from Your Existing SEO Content”
• Hubspot – “How to Make Your Blog Posts SEO-Friendly [Checklist]”
• Moz – “The Art of Thinking Sideways: Content Marketing for “Boring” Businesses”
• The Guardian – “Search Engines are Changing (Again) – And Content Marketers Must Be Ready”

Content Marketing and Social Media

Social media marketing can be a great tool for building brand awareness and affinity – not to mention an easy way to get your content pieces seen.  Read through the following articles for more information on how to apply social media best practices to your content campaigns:

• Sparksheet – “The New Content Narrative: Syncing Social with SEO”
• Storify – “Social Media Sucks if Content Marketers Don’t Get it Right”
• Convince and Convert – “9 Best Social Media and Content Marketing Tips from Buffer”
• Social Media Examiner – “How to Build a Content Strategy Using a Social Media Audit”
• Convince and Convert – “11 Big Myths About Social Media and Content Marketing”
• Huffington Post – “B2B and Social Media Content Marketing”
• Social Media Explorer – “How to Double Your Marketing Effectiveness by Combining Content Marketing and Social”
• Convince and Convert – “Here’s the Difference Between Content Marketing and Social Media”
• Ducttape Marketing – “Be Everywhere: Connecting Social Media to the Real World”

Content Marketing and Brand Building

Many industry experts that strong content marketing campaigns represent the future of brand building.  Do you agree or disagree?  The following blog posts might help shape your views:

• Inc. – “5 Surprising Truths about Content Marketing”
• ABC News – “Building Your Brand: 5 Ways Content Marketing Can Help Build Loyalty”
• Sharyn Sheldon – “Where Content Marketing and Branding Collide: Building a Content Brand”
• Heidi Cohen – “5 Small Business Branding Tactics You Can Use”

Content Marketing and eCommerce

Effective content campaigns can give eCommerce sellers a serious advantage – if they’re carried out correctly.  Read on for resource articles on the different ways eCommerce sites can kill it with content marketing:

• ShoutMeLoud – “How Content Marketing Can Help eCommerce Businesses”
• Content Marketing Institute – “4 Ways Visual Content Can Enhance Your eCommerce User Experience”
• Shopify – “9 Resources Online Store Owners Can Use to Create Beautiful Marketing Content”
• Shopify – “5 Ways eCommerce Sites are Killing it with Content Marketing”
• Practical eCommerce – “5 eCommerce Marketing Ideas for September 2014”
• Hubspot – “5 Ways to Increase the ROI of Your eCommerce Marketing Blog”
• eConsultancy – “18 Highly Effective Examples of Social Proof in eCommerce”
• SEO Hacker – “Content Marketing Tips for eCommerce Sites”

Content Marketing and Analytics

There’s no doubt – what gets measured, gets managed.  And content marketing is no exception!  Measuring content ROI can be tricky, but the blog posts listed below should help you identify a process for determining the value of your content work:

• Content Marketing Institute – “Content Marketing Strategy: 3 Ways to Measure Success with Google Analytics”
• Problogger – “Analytics for Content Marketers and Bloggers: What Do You Need to Track?”
• Content Marketing Institute – “Measuring Marketing Effectiveness: Find Out if Your Content Converts”
• Orbit Media Studios – “How to Setup Google Analytics: 5 Videos that Make it Easy”
• My Social Agency – “How to Use Google Analytics to Enhance Your Content Marketing”
• Content Marketing Forum – “The Best Content Marketing Metrics According to 24 Experts [SlideShare]”
• Content Marketing Institute – “A Simple Plan for Measuring the Marketing Effectiveness of Content”
• Content Marketing Forum – “The Comprehensive Guide to Content Marketing Analytics and Metrics”

Content Marketing Tools

Last but not least, while tools won’t take the place of effective content strategies, they can make your campaigns must more efficient.  Here are a few great lists of tools that you can use to improve your efficiency and maximize your campaign effectiveness:

• KISSMetrics – “50 Tools to Jumpstart Your Content Marketing”
• Top Rank Blog – “10 Content Marketing Tools for Creation, Distribution and Analytics”
• Wordstream – “32 Free (& Almost Free) Content Marketing Tools”
• URA Phoenix Media – “Content Marketing Tools: The Best Blogging + Content Creation Tools to Use Everyday”
• Orbit Media Studios – “15 Content Marketing Bookmarklets”
• Cornerstone Content – “33 Essential Tools for Content Creators”
• Jeff Bullas – “15 Free Content Marketing Tools to Make Your Life Easier”
• Business 2 Community – “How to Create Awesome Infographics Without Being a Designer”

What else would you add to this list?  If you’ve seen a great post that I missed, share your recommendation to the comments section below!